Yet Another Day of Observation...

Today was my fifth day of observation at the junior high school. As ususal, I walked in during the teacher’s study hall period, so I went around observing what the students were working on. Aside from working on some geography assignments, students were also working on a Jekyll and Hyde venn diagram in order to help them compare and contrast, a bacteria map in which they were to label the different parts of a cell, and a geometry vocabulary crossword puzzle. I’m very fortunate to be able to see other projects that students are working on in other classes. I thought that all of the assignments were creative and made the subjects more interesting for the students. I know that I would love to fill out a crossword puzzle in order to learn vocabulary words. I’ve noticed that during these study hall periods, many times some students will come up to the teacher’s desk and ask him random questions, such as today when a boy began talking about astronomy with him. Instead of sending the student back to their seat, the teacher has a discussion with the student. This boy is taking an interest in a certain subject, and the teacher took some time out to discuss something of importance to the student.

When class began, students started by working on their daily map quiz. During this time I was able to go around the room and help answer students’ questions. I was surprised by how many of them were unfamiliar with finding a location using latitude and longitude, especially since they have been working on it for the entire school year. Because the teacher was still a feeling sick, he planned to hand back papers and have the students watch a movie. While he handed students’ papers back, he reviewed them and explained common mistakes that students had made. One assignment was especially difficult for the students, in which they had to create a graph, so the teacher dropped the grade but still reviewed common mistakes that were made so that they would be able to understand what they had done. Once all of the papers were handed back, the class began their in class video assignment. While they were watching their video on the Amazon, students were to fill out the five themes of the geography of the Amazon. This included the location, the place (physical and human features), human-environment interaction, movement (of goods, people, and ideas), and region. Before beginning the video, the teacher gave explanations for each of the themes using Bloomington as an example. This referred to Dewey’s idea of building education off of what students already know.

On Monday I will finally decide what student I should pick to work with for my profile. Once I have some idea, I’m going to discuss it with the teacher and see if they are a good candidate. We have agreed that I should pick a student that isn’t a model student and always well behaved, but I need to find one that is somewhat disciplined and will be able to help me with my observation and research. I also need a student that will be able to get most of their work done so that I can use some of their time to work with them. Aside from this, I have one small concern right now. I feel like I’m not that active in my classroom. I’m just not sure how I can contribute because much of the time it is a class discussion that the teacher has planned. I think it would have been easier for me to observe in a language arts class where I could work one on one with the students. The most I’ve done thus far is help students when they are working on worksheets and map quizzes on their own, but that doesn’t happen often. I’m not sure how I can get involved. Does anyone have any suggestions?